Ask HN: Why is uploading to Google Drive so slow?

Posted by nomilk on Wednesday April 17, 2024 @10:54PM
from the ask-hn dept.

I'm attempting to upload 2TB to google drive.

My upload speed is 250mbps, so 200gb should take around 2 hours, but it takes 20h. I've tried on multiple different wifi networks and on different times/days for the past week.

yesterday I tried dropbox app on macOS, and the 200gb directory uploaded in well under 2h.

This differential is abstruse and I have no idea what's going on nor where to get help on this. The tl;dr is I'd like to keep using Google Drive because it's what I'm familiar with, but it seems upload speeds greater than 25mbps are not possible.

I realise I could "just wait". But I much prefer to understand what's going on; if this is a google policy, or if I'm doing something wrong.

FWIW I'm drop and dragging files from macOS to the google drive web interface. (I don't believe google has an official drive app for macOS app as Dropbox has).

Any improvements to my understanding or help on this are greatly appreciated.

( 7 comments | 3 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Why is uploading to Google Drive so slow? by tornquist on Wednesday April 17, 2024 @11:19PM (#40072637)

Google Drive has a macOS app like Dropbox. I’ve also found direct web uploads slow.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why is uploading to Google Drive so slow? by nomilk on Wednesday April 17, 2024 @11:25PM (#40072667)

Thanks so much. For some reason when I searched App Store directly all I got was imitation (third party) google drive macOS apps, and am averse to giving out Google credentials willy nilly.

Thanks also for confirming direct uploads are slow for you too, helps me understand it’s less likely something unique to me.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why is uploading to Google Drive so slow? by nomilk on Thursday April 18, 2024 @10:38PM (#40082947)

In case this thread helps anyone else in the future, switching to using the Google Drive Desktop app (in my case for macOS, but it's on windows too), increased the speed by approximately 10x.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why is uploading to Google Drive so slow? by RGamma on Thursday April 18, 2024 @03:24AM (#40073819)

rclone can access/mount Google Drive: https://rclone.org/drive/

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Re:Ask HN: Why is uploading to Google Drive so slow? by aborsy on Thursday April 18, 2024 @04:44AM (#40074180)

Rclone can mount anything!

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Re:Ask HN: Why is uploading to Google Drive so slow? by ishankbg on Thursday April 18, 2024 @07:04AM (#40074918)

Because it's Google

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Re:Ask HN: Why is uploading to Google Drive so slow? by b20000 on Friday April 19, 2024 @11:28PM (#40094519)

because googlers are napping in their nap pods

[ Parent | on HN ]